Kristen Austgen lives in northwest Indiana.  She is currently earning her degree in English at Thomas Edison State College. By the time she was three years old, she could read almost effortlessly. Trips to the local library should have included a U-haul because of the sheer volume of the books she eagerly lugged home. 

       

        Even though Kristen has been reading and telling stories for as long as she can remember, when she was little she wanted to be a ballerina, a veterinarian, or a princess. It’s possible that she wanted to be all three at the same time. Eventually, she figured out that she preferred writing about ballerinas, veterinarians and princesses over actually being one.

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        In High School, Kristen participated in the Assemblies of God's District and National Fine Arts Festivals, writing many short stories, poems, book chapters, and essays. Many of these works received invitations to national competition, where several placed highly, scoring Superior with Honors.

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       In 2009, Kristen participated in National Novel Writing Month, often shortened into the fun-to-say NaNoWriMo, and made the somewhat lofty goal to write 50,000 words in thirty days.  She finished just over 30,000 words. This might be because she couldn't manage to sneak away during Thanksgiving dinner to keep writing.  She would have missed the pumpkin pie.

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        Despite the inability to claim that she had completed the 50,000 word challenge, Kristen kept working on the story that would eventually become Futility. Gradually, its word count grew from 30,000 to slightly over 100,000.  It was completed on January 28th, 2011, a victory that she immediately celebrated by updating her Facebook status and promptly collapsing into bed.